Martin Scorsese brings DiCaprio and Lawrence together in ‘What Happens at Night’

Martin Scorsese has lined up his next film — an adaptation of Peter Cameron's ghostly novel "What Happens at Night" — with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence set to star.

Apple Original Films is in talks to finance and co-produce the project alongside Studiocanal, which secured rights to Cameron's book last year. The screenplay is being adapted by Patrick Marber, the Oscar-nominated writer of "Notes on a Scandal".

The story follows an American couple who journey to a snowbound European city to adopt a child. The wife, weakened by cancer, grows frailer with each step of the trip, while her husband fears the orphanage will refuse them. 

At the eerie Borgarfjaroasysla Grand Imperial Hotel — where the bar never closes and strangers seem too strange to be real — they meet a surreal cast of characters, from an ageing chanteuse to a mysterious faith healer. 

Nothing is as it seems in this frozen world, where the couple's search for a child slowly unravels into questions about their marriage, their identities, and life itself.

The project reunites Scorsese and DiCaprio, who have made six films together over two decades, from "Gangs of New York" to "Killers of the Flower Moon". For Lawrence, this marks her first time under Scorsese's direction — though the director also produced her upcoming film "Die My Love", which debuted at Cannes to awards buzz.

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Both actors arrive with momentum. DiCaprio is earning acclaim for Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another", while Lawrence, who recently starred in Apple's "Causeway", shared the screen with DiCaprio in the 2021 satire "Don't Look Up".

Apple, which distributed "Killers of the Flower Moon" and holds first-look deals with Scorsese's Sikelia Productions and DiCaprio's Appian Way, is seen as the frontrunner to bring "What Happens at Night" to the screen.